Thursday, May 23, 2024

New course explores theory and practice on social innovation

A message from United College.

A new course, INNOV200: Theory & Practice of Social Innovation is available for fall 2024, and will count towards achieving the new minor in Social Innovation and Impact.

This course will introduce students to foundational concepts and methods in social innovation and impact. Students will engage in a series of classroom-based lectures, active learning exercises, and occasional experiential field visits to develop an understanding of how problems are identified and the unique response to such problems provided by the socialinnovation approach. INNOV 200 is taught by Tania Del Matto, an experienced entrepreneur and mentor to hundreds of students who have launched their social impact projects. Enroll in INNOV 200 for your chance to develop your identity as a changemaker in your community.

Designing a better nest to help endangered turtles

A painted turtle hatchling (photo credit: Dr. Chantel Markle/University of Waterloo).

With Ontario’s eight species of turtles considered at risk, a new nest designed by researchers has the potential to significantly bolster their struggling populations. 

The habitat is the first designed for turtles in rock barren landscapes, such as the research site around Georgian Bay. It uses moss and lichen. The researchers found that the design provided a more stable environment for incubating eggs compared to natural sites, where the probability of an egg hatching was only 10 per cent compared to 41 per cent in the created site.  

“The number 1 threat to freshwater turtles in Ontario is habitat loss and degradation from urbanization,” said Dr. Chantel Markle, a professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo and lead author of the study. “Georgian Bay is one of the last remaining strongholds for some at-risk turtles in Ontario, so this new design is a step towards the survival of the species.”

Pressures from extensive road networks, suppression of cultural burning practices by Indigenous peoples, and the effects of climate change make it increasingly difficult for turtles to find an appropriate location in which to lay their eggs within the rocky landscape. Characteristics of nesting sites are crucial to the future of the population. In certain species, eggs incubated in cooler environments hatch into male turtles while warmer environments produce females, potentially skewing an entire generation.

The researchers strategically chose locations that would help ensure the nests would remain warm and drain well after rain. They paid close attention to cracks in the bedrock, soil depth and sloping of the landscape. 

“Taking an interdisciplinary approach to assessing the success of habitat created for animal reproduction is critical,” Markle said. “In this study we evaluated the physical, ecohydrological and ecological success of the created nesting habitat—a combination not often seen in a single study.” 

The team created the nesting sites in 2019 and monitored them for five years, with no changes necessary during that time. These promising results suggest that the design doesn’t need much oversight for years.

The researchers’ goal will be to replicate and scale up the nest design in other rocky landscapes in the province. They note that the design is specifically for any rocky barren landscapes, including other parts of Canada and the United States. The methods are publicly available with the paper so that turtle conservation groups could support their local turtle species.

The study, Creating landscape-appropriate habitat restoration strategies: success of a novel nesting habitat design for imperiled freshwater turtles, includes researchers from McMaster University and was recently published in Restoration Ecology. 

Campus Pride crosswalks to be cleaned and repainted

A message from Marketing and Strategic Initiatives.

Due to seasonal wear and tear, the ring road Pride crosswalks at University Avenue and Columbia Street are scheduled to be repainted between May 25 and 28, weather permitting. Please expect a slight disruption to vehicular traffic.

The Pride walkway in the courtyard near Dana Porter Library will receive a spring cleaning on May 30, 2024. Disruption to pedestrian traffic is not expected. 

For more information on upcoming campus activities related to Pride Month at Waterloo, please visit the Pride website.

Winners of the Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Award named

The Waterloo Centre for German Studies has announced the 2024 winners of the Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Award.

• Amanda Hooper, PhD candidate with the History Department – The “Capital of the Holocaust”: Rethinking the Role of Auschwitz in Holocaust History.This project explores the ways in which Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration-turned-death-camp, has become the central symbol of the Holocaust. To evaluate the evolving role and centralization of Auschwitz, this research examines major publications, public history sites, and Holocaust survivor testimony. Amanda’s dissertation will assess the weight of Auschwitz in Holocaust history and provide insight to moving beyond the singular camp to a more diverse, complete history of the Holocaust.
• Anna Kuhn, IcGS student with the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies and the Universitaet Mannheim – A Call for ‘Widerstand’? Identifying strategies of the New Right's Language and Literature Policy. In a time of widespread protests against right-wing extremism, this project exposes the political instrumentalization of German studies. Anna's research will be centred on Verlag Antaios, a right-wing German publishing house. Using discourse analysis and close readings of the material published by Antaios, Anna will examine the New Right’s language and literature policy and their invocation of ‘Widerstand’ (resistance) to uncover how the German far right is justifying resistance against the government. Her evaluation will consider how the term is framed, its inherent ideological perspectives, the literary context in which it is employed, and its intended purpose to uncover unconscious manipulation in German language and literature.

"Congratulations to History PhD Candidate Amanda Hooper and IcGS MA student Anna Kuhn," says a note from the department. 

About the Piller Award

The Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Awards were established to support excellent graduate students in the Faculty of Arts doing research into any aspect of German Studies. The winners, chosen from a set of very strong applications, demonstrate the high calibre of the research into German studies being conducted by graduate students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo.

Each winner will receive a $4,000 prize to help fund their research. For further information, please visit the Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Award website.